Noumena

Noumena – Dust Particles

My noumena project is of the dust particles that are in the air. No one really realizes they’re there till that one moment in time when the light hits them and they appear. Noumena is defined as an object as it is in itself independent of the mind (dictionary.com). Dust is something that itself is not perceived, interpreted, or incapable of being known but only inferred from the nature of experience. Dust is literally everywhere but we never actually realize it till we directly interact with it. The pictures in this series try to capture that moment when we realize that we are interacting with something we have always been interacting with. We are constantly breathing in dust particles, but we never think about it. These pictures capture the dust particles that I see in the moment, but some may not even experience dust particles or see them as I do. The pictures try to capture the moment of noumena which is not normally perceived. There is no way to really prove the dust is in the air and noumena is basically the existence of which is not capable of proof.

In my pictures, the dust is the main thing that is in focus and this draws your eye directly to the main point of the picture, dust. In this project, there was a lot of trial and error in trying to find ways to capture the dust. Only one of the images was shot in natural light and this is because capturing dust in natural light is extremely hard. You have to have the right time in the day to where the sun is hitting the dust particles. Therefore, all the rest of my images are captured in artificial light. The dust has been agitated in all of the photos so as to be seen in the light. Also the pictures are extremely close to the light source because the light has to be able to bounce off the dust. I tried many times to blow dust off books, but if the light wasn’t right there’s no way to capture the dust. I also had to use manual focus because the auto focus wouldn’t focus on the dust but the light source or the background.